Burial caskets include a lid hingedly connected to a body along one longitudinal edge, to permit hinged movement of the lid to a closed position along the other longitudinal edge. The lid and the body include structural components which cooperate to permit the lid to be locked, or tightly sealed, to the body in the closed position so that the closed casket is airtight.
When the casket is initially closed, the body and the lid are in uninterrupted engagement along confronting flange surfaces which extend completely around the four walls of the casket. A compressible gasket or sealing tube also extends completely around the casket and resides between the engaged flange surfaces of the body and the lid. During locking, the lid is pulled downwardly toward the body to compress the gasket and to provide an airtight seal extending completely around the four walls of the casket.
For metal caskets, a wedge bar is commonly used to lock the lid to the body. The wedge bar resides within a hollow portion of the body of the casket, adjacent the flange, and it extends almost the entire length of the open, or nonhinged, side of the casket. Hangers located inside the body hold the wedge bar at a desired vertical position, but allow horizontal movement along the axis of the wedge bar. The wedge bar includes at least one, and preferably three or four, catches having cam surfaces. The catches may be integrally formed with the wedge bar or separately attached thereto. Each catch resides immediately below a small opening in the flange along the nonhinged edge of the body. The nonhinged edge of the lid includes a corresponding number of keeper elements mounted thereto and directed downwardly, and these elements are aligned with the openings and catches. When the lid is closed, the keeper elements extend downwardly through the openings, with each keeper element positioned adjacent a catch.
Longitudinal movement of the wedge bar in a first direction toward a first end wall of the casket causes the catches to engage the keeper elements, and the keeper elements are cammed downwardly by the catches until the wedge bar stops moving. This camming action pulls the lid downwardly to the sealed position. A screw mounted within the body has a head end which is accessible through a port in the first end wall. This screw operatively connects to one end of the wedge bar, and the screw is held in place relative to the body by a bracket, which is fixedly secured to the body. Rotating the screw in one direction moves the wedge bar toward the first end wall, which locks the casket. Rotating the screw in an opposite direction moves the wedge bar toward the opposite end wall, which unlocks the casket. The screw is rotated from outside the first end wall, via the port therein.
Additional structural components are also housed within the body adjacent the first end wall, and these components are associated with the screw, the wedge bar or the bracket. These additional components are used to couple the screw to the wedge bar, to serve as a bearing therebetween, to prevent the wedge bar from rotating about its longitudinal axis, to prevent movement of the screw from its axis and to limit movement of the wedge bar toward or away from the first end wall during sealing or unsealing, respectively.
Burial caskets are typically displayed prior to being sold, so that the customer may select a preferred model. In displaying burial caskets, it is often necessary to demonstrate the locking capability. For some caskets, numerous demonstrations occur prior to sale. To maintain the reputation of the casket manufacturer, it is absolutely critical that the locking components perform repeated demonstrations without failing. The ability of the locking mechanism to perform repeated demonstrations without failure on one casket also provides a favorable indication that the same mechanism will not fail when used on other caskets, which for one reason or another may not be subjected to such demonstrations.
Additionally, regardless of whether or not the locking capability of a casket is publicly demonstrated, it is important that the casket remain locked in an airtight condition during actual use. Otherwise, a number of environmental and/or health concerns may arise, some of which are regulated by public law. These concerns are particularly relevant if the casket, in actual use, is not buried in the ground but simply placed in a mausoleum. Thus, the combination of structural components associated with locking and unlocking a casket must perform reliably and must hold up over an extended period of use.
In one prior locking casket locking design, seven separate parts are used to accomplish the above-described functions, excluding the wedge bar itself and fastening screws used to hold the bracket to the body. More specifically, this prior design uses a rivnut to couple the screw to the wedge bar. This rivnut is press fit into the end of the wedge bar and threadably receives an externally threaded screw. The screw also extends through a washer, a hole in one end wall of the bracket and a stop collar prior to threadable connection to the rivnut. The washer serves as a bearing surface between the rotatable screw and the fixed bracket. A roll pin secures the stop collar to the screw. A rivet secures to the wedge bar, and the rivet includes a head end which extends through a horizontal channel cut in a side wall of the bracket. This rivet and channel prevent twisting of the wedge bar during rotation of the screw.
While this design has generally been acceptable in use, there is room for improvement. Namely, the stop collar and roll pin connected to the screw have been susceptible to failure. Also, coupling of the screw to the wedge bar requires machining and connecting the rivnut. Additionally, the rivet/channel structure for preventing twisting of the wedge bar requires several machining steps to form these parts, followed by the assembly steps of connecting and extending the rivet through the channel and connecting it to the wedge bar, with the wedge bar in place. In sum, the use of these seven separate parts for the purpose of locking and unlocking a casket represents a disproportionately high cost to the manufacturer, and ultimately to the consumer, particularly when considering that this design has failed on some occasions.
It is an object of this invention to significantly reduce the failure susceptibility of the structural components used to lock and unlock a burial casket.
It is another object of this invention to reduce the number of parts used to lock and unlock a burial casket, without sacrificing structural integrity or performance quality.
It is still another object of the invention to reduce the costs associated with manufacturing and assembling the components used to lock and unlock a casket.